


Dreams of an Apocalypse

by LockedKeye



Category: Grim Dawn (Video Game), Warframe
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Crossover
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-04
Updated: 2020-07-23
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:08:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25059763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LockedKeye/pseuds/LockedKeye
Summary: A Tenno finds himself in the wake of an apocalypse.  With his warframe missing, he sets out to find a way back home.
Relationships: n/a
Kudos: 7





	1. Waking to Smoke and Ash

The Tenno stayed still a moment, contemplating that A) he was no longer one with Umbra, and B) for some reason he was lying on dirt and cobblestones, not the deck of his orbiter. Clearly, the Void chasm that had come out of nowhere had been harsher (or, perhaps, weirder?) than normal.

“Wake up!” a harsh voice ordered.

Slightly annoyed, the Tenno opened his eyes, regarding with some bemusement a bald human dressed in leathers and cloth for a second, before turning his eyes to the grey skies for a moment.

‘Clouds and soot’, he thought. ‘There have been firestorms recently’.

Continuing to ignore the obviously suspicious and angry human, the Tenno reached out through the Void to attempt to rejoin with Umbra. Frustratingly, something beyond simple distance or time seemed to be in the way. ‘Well,’ he thought slowly, ‘someone is going to die for this’.

As the Tenno had been contemplating, a bearded man wearing a (relatively speaking) fancy leather coat with gold-tasseled epaulets had joined the bald human.

“We should definitely hang this one, Captain,” the bald one asserted to the other. “People who fall out of holes in the sky are definitely Aetherial plots”.

“I don’t know anything about ‘Aetherials’,” the Tenno stated, clambering to his feet, noting with some relief that he still had his amp[= ‘I could take them,’ he mused, ‘but all things considered…’ he cast his eyes over the ruined stonework of the primitive fortress that he had somehow arrived at, as well as the handful of dirty, desperate looking guards aiming odd but primitive-looking firearms at him, ‘it might be the worst outcome’.

“Of course, not knowing what “Aetherials” are is somewhat minor compared to not know where I am in general,” the Tenno noted, hoping that it would illicit at least some explanation.

“I am Captain John Bourbon”, the bearded man declared, his eyes narrowed at the strange interloper. “This placed is Devil’s Crossing. Who—and what—are you, and where on Cairn did you come from?”

‘Cairn?’ the Tenno thought. ‘That’s not ominous at all’.

The Tenno considered the Captain a moment. “Hunter,” he answered after a pause, deciding that the abbreviation would be more readily received than “Hunter of Locusts”. “As for where, I am afraid I don’t know in relation to this place. It is called ‘Lua’, but I very much doubt it is known here.”

“Has the Grim Dawn not touched Lua?” Bourbon demanded.

“Not yet,” Hunter cautiously replied.

“It will,” Bourbon said darkly. He shook his head abruptly. “The last person we cut down from the noose proved useful to us. Will you help us against the monsters as well, or will we need to take preventive measures?” He continued to regard the interloper through narrowed eyes.

“Killing monsters is something I’m not unfamiliar with,” Hunter replied judiciously. “Do you have more specific—“

“They’re coming!” the cry rose from the other side of the compound, accompanied by the sound of gunfire.

The captain and the hangman started before turning toward to the sudden crack of gunfire. Hunter considered the situation momentarily, before mentally shrugging.

‘I did say that I was familiar with monster disposal’.

A couple Void dashes found him perched on the crumbling walls of the keep. He quickly surveyed his surroundings. Inside the walls, a miserable group of refugees. Across the courtyard, a glowing spatial distortion, not unlike what a particularly skilled Limbo might create for allies to retreat through. And across a bridge leading past a small river—

‘Walking corpses?’ the Tenno thought, bemused. ‘Well, if these “Aetherials” are as fond of pseudo-living weapons as the Infested are, at least I have some idea what to expect—which is anything at all,’ he noted sardonically.

A blink, and the Tenno was among the guards holding the bridge. A quick burst courtesy of his amp’s rahn prism turned one of the advancing corpses into a cloud of rotten gore.

‘Cannon fodder,’ he noted absently, already beginning to eliminate the dozen or so remaining threats. ‘Enough to keep the pressure on a group of beleaguered refugees, but definitely not the worst thing I’m going to see.’

The attack halted in its tracks, the bridge guards fidgeted, clearly unsure whether they should continue monitoring the crossing into the fortress, or if they should turn their guns to cover the stranger in their midst. Hunter elected to ignore them, instead turning to face the approaching captain.

“Well, you weren’t lying about monster killing,” Bourbon said. “We can use that here. We can hold this position against the things my scouts have reported in the immediate area, but darker things have been reported to the northeast, in the village of Burrwitch. The Taken is headed in that direction, and while his success in killing the Reanimator under Burial Hill is promising, he could use help. Help I can’t spare from here. If you can catch up with him, our odds of eliminating the threat in Burrwitch go up considerably.”

“A couple questions first,” said Hunter. “First, what is that?” he asked, gesturing towards the purple hole in space occupying one side of the fortress courtyard.

“A rift gate,” stated Bourbon. “A construct predating the empire that would allow us to reach other parts, if anyone here had an affinity for using it. The Taken seems to have that ability, but even then, one needs to attune to a rift gate to travel to it, so it’s still useless to us. A damn shame, since we’ve had reports of the Black Legion holding out at Homestead, where another gate is. At least the Aetherials don’t seem to be able to use them.”

“Taken? You’ve used that word a couple times now.”

“What we call people the Aetherials have possessed,” Bourbon stated gruffly. “We hanged one, but the Aetherial fled from the body. Our mage Sahdina verified he wasn’t possessed anymore so we cut him down. His skill with fire magic has proven useful—probably the reason the Aetherials saw fit to possess him, rather than simply twist the body into one of their monsters”.

Hunter considered the intelligence, and the human’s request for aid, for a moment.

“The…companion I was with before finding myself here is missing,” Hunter began, “and the northeast—where you say this Burrwitch is—is the same direction I sense I should travel to rejoin him. Our objectives align, and,” Hunter stretched, cracking the joints in his neck, “killing monsters to protect other people is my job.”

He pulled his scarf—Umbra’s scarf—up to hide the lower half of his face, and the smile that he had been told terrified small children. His eye glinted, gold and alien. “I’ll kill your problem for you.”


	2. Setting Off

Hunter started out across the bridge, stopping halfway to note that the wood was deeply stained with blood and crusted-on gore. He took a moment to call up his HUD via his somatic implants, and was relieved to find that the mapping function and the magnetic compass were both functioning. 

‘Small mercies for a Void-damned situation. Still,’ he cast a look over the bridge, ‘from the oldest bits, it’s been at least a month since things around here dropped into hell. Plenty of time for an invading force to dig in.’ 

Crossing over the remainder of the bridge, he paused again to consider his surroundings. 

‘“Morgan and Sons Coffinmakers”,’ he read the sign on the nearest ruined building. ‘A world called “Cairn”, and now the first place I see is a coffin-maker? Fate is waving “get out now” signs in front of me.’ 

He looked at the cobblestone road leading north through the center of the ruined houses. ‘The main road likely leads to Burrwitch, but,’ he looked to his left, ‘following the waterfront feels like a slightly straighter path to Umbra. And void dash can traverse obstacles that roads need to go around.’ 

With a tentative course planned, the Tenno headed left past the ruined coffin-maker’s, intent on following the shoreline for as long as expedient. Unfortunately, his path was almost immediately delayed by a small group of flightless insects, each almost as long as a small vermink. 

Insects which immediately began vomiting acidic projectiles at him. 

Dropping out of phase with reality, into the Void, Hunter watched the insects as their attacks passed harmlessly through him. ‘More Aetherial weapons, or is the wildlife around here just like this?’ 

Phasing back into the real, the Tenno raked the insects with a burst of void-fire, instantly bursting them into bits of chitin and guts. Taking a step forward to review the mess, he sniffed, wrinkling his nose. With a rotting branch retrieved from the ground he poked at the remains—and looked in some dismay at the corroding tip. 

‘Acid projectiles and acidic insides. My day is just getting better and better.’ 

‘Really, really hope the wildlife around here isn’t all like this,’ Hunter groused, marching on past the dead insects. 

Turning north to follow the path that paralleled the waterline, Hunter passed by a burned-out building, whose still-intact sign proclaimed it was once a gunsmith’s. 

‘Pity it’s only a shell. Probably wouldn’t have anything useful, but…,’ Hunter casually shot the head off one of the zombies in the intersection just ahead. Picking off two more of the cannon fodder, he looked with interest at the newest abomination at the center of the group. Half again as tall as a human, mottled green, glowing skin stretched over a distortedly enhanced torso. Its head was halfway buried in its own body, and one arm was twice as long as the other, spiked with shards of bone that turned the limb into a crude and vicious club. 

The beast snarled before staggering at a surprisingly fast pace toward Hunter. Hunter responded by casually shooting its legs off, before returning to eliminating the handful of zombies that were left. 

The Aetherial weapon, undeterred by its partial dismemberment, continued to thrash and claw its way towards its target. The trash dealt with, Hunter walked over, his one visible eyebrow raised. He considered a moment, and then shot its arms off as well. 

Crouching, he examined the thing’s weaponized arm. ‘Hm. Spikes are just shards of bone embedded in muscles extended from the upper half of the arm.’ He delicately traced a fingertip from the top to the bottom of the severed arm, using a small flare of Void energy to cut through the toughened skin. ‘Humerus, radius, and ulna are still intact in the upper half of the arm. Lower half is just muscle.’ 

The dismembered torso, apparently oblivious to its helpless state, continued to squirm and snap its teeth. 

“You are one persistent creature,” Hunter informed it, before putting a couple bolts of Void energy through the center of its body—which succeeded in killing it. 

“Still has what passes for vital organs then,” he said aloud. “Good.” 

Hunter stood up, considering what he had learned. ‘I don’t think Aetherials are infectious, so comparing them to the Infested isn’t quite right. But they’re definitely skilled at warping flesh into living weapons, even if they prefer brute force to fine craftsmanship. And the Captain at Devil’s Crossing mentioned possession. Could be tricky if they can use their captives’ memories and skills’. 

Hunter shook his head, setting aside theoreticals. The important thing right now was rejoining with Umbra. 

Continuing along the path, Hunter forded a small stream via Void Dash, and kept walking along between the buildings on the waterfront. To his right was a long, two-story building. ‘Merchant’s house? Mayor?’ he wondered. Passing by, he was again set upon by more of the damnable acid spitting bugs, which emerged from the wreckage of a house on his left. 

After engaging in more pest control, Hunter proceeded to Void Dash forward, alighting on the roof of a covered structure which a sign pronounced a “stable”. He leaned forward over the edge of the roof, considering the wreck of a wooden, wheeled conveyance below him. 

‘Meant to be pulled by animals,’ he observed. ‘Do self-propelled vehicles not exist on this world, or just not around here?’ 

Dropping down to the street, he raked a writhing laser of Void energy courtesy of his amp’s Klebrik scaffold across the scattered zombies, reducing them all to scorched chunks. Two more shots killed the pair of Aetherial bruisers next to the docks. 

Walking over, Hunter noted that one of the pair had a blade of bone for an arm, instead of the previously observed club. 

He turned away, reading the sign across the front of the nearest building. ‘Malmouth Ferry. “Malmouth? Is that the name of a place?’ He stopped. ‘I need a map of the region. I should have asked back at Devil’s Crossing before I left. Running off to start killing everything between me and Umbra was clumsy,’ he chastised himself. 

‘Perhaps the ferry has an office with maps?’ 

After ransacking the ferry building, and the attached inn, and killing the handful of nuisances he found inside, Hunter was forced to conclude that the proverbial cupboards were bare. Anything useful had clearly been taken when the inhabitants had left. 

‘Well, I have a compass and a heading. Find Umbra first, intel later’. 

Exiting the ferry house’s back door, Hunter found himself at the edge of a narrow but swiftly-flowing stream. He looked askance at the “bridge” that crossed it—just two planks supported by a lashed-together wooden a-frame in the middle—before considering the minor fracas on the other side. 

A handful of poorly armed walking corpses, including a pair which appeared to be on fire, were having it out with a group of the acid spitting insects which appeared to have been nesting in a partially collapsed house. 

‘I guess that settles the question about the wildlife. Damn.’ Hunter loosed an experimental shot into the head of one of the burning zombies, and was completely unsurprised when it exploded, knocking the surrounding enemies down. The second burning zombie, apparently critically injured by the blast, cooked off, killing the remaining insects. A couple idle shots and a quick Void Dash across the stream later and Hunter was inspecting the wreckage. 

He nudged one of the zombies weapons with his boot. ‘Poor quality, but the others I’ve seen weren’t armed. Well, it only makes them slightly more dangerous. Explosive enemies are a just a bit more problematic, but,’ he eyed the smashed bugs, ‘I sincerely hope the Aetherials haven’t gone and “improved” those things for their own army.’ 

He eyed the fallen weapons momentarily. ‘Not worth taking,’ he thought dismissively, before turning to the north, and the almost imperceptible tug on his senses that said Umbra. 

A couple hundred feet ahead a low cliff line rose above the ruined houses. The road turned east, clearly heading a route that travelers limited to mundane movement would need to travel to go around the barrier. A Tenno, on the other hand, had other options. 

Hunter headed toward the bluffs, intending to Dash to the top, and was set upon by a small pack of warped hounds that burst from a ruined cottage at the base of the rocks. The pack died messily in short order, and the Tenno stalked over to study the corpses. 

“Green, glowing pustules and clearly warped muscles. Most likely Aetherial, then,” he said to himself. “They’ve really gone and scattered their forces everywhere haven’t they? 

“…Wonder what their actual army looks like.” 

Walking into the marshy ground at the base of the cliffs, Hunter stopped under a scraggly tree. He sniffed, looking out over the water. It didn’t smell salt. A lake? He couldn’t see the other side. An inland sea, perhaps? He really needed a map. 

Turning from the water, Hunter took a leap through the Void, alighting at the top of the cliff, and found himself surrounded by scorched corpses and shattered gravestones.


End file.
